BOSTON — Late Sunday afternoon, the Yankees began life without Derek Jeter and are in the market for a shortstop for the first time since 1996.

J.J. Hardy, Elvis Andrus, Starlin Castro, Alcides Escobar and Stephen Drew are shortstops who have been mentioned as possible replacements for Jeter.

On the surface, replacing Jeter sounds like a monumental task for the next Yankees shortstop. However, it won’t be that daunting, according to Joe Girardi.

“In a sense it’s not going to be a huge deal because Derek wasn’t pushed out or not re-signed, he retired,’’ the manager said. “I watched what David Robertson went through and I feel like when he didn’t get the job done, there wasn’t any backlash. Sometimes it’s different when a person is traded or a team doesn’t re-sign him, but when a guy retires, I think it’s a much different feel.’’

“It’s an honor to be at short for his last game. I was at second the other day and turned his last double play and that’s something I’ll always remember,’’ Drew said.

Do you think Robinson Cano would have made a difference in the middle of the Yankees’ order this year?

Brian McCann led the Yankees with 75 RBIs this season. It was the first time in a full season since 1992 the Yankees didn’t have a 100-RBI producer. Danny Tartabull drove in 102 runs in 1993. Paul O’Neill drove in 83 runs in 1994 and 96 in 1995, when each season was impacted by a labor dispute.

After batting practice, the Yankees gathered in left field, where Mark Teixeira and McCann, possessors of the four slowest legs on the club, staged a race.

Starting at the left-field foul line and running toward center, where the other players gathered, Teixeira blew McCann away.

“I thought I had that one in the bag. Everyone’s been wanting to see who’s faster, so that’s what happened,’’ McCann said.

Girardi left the decision to take batting practice up to Jeter.

“I asked him if he wanted to hit and he said, ‘I always want to hit,’ ” Girardi said.

The season is over, but CC Sabathia’s recovery from right knee surgery continues Monday.

“I will play catch at 90 feet for three or four days and then go to 120 feet and after that probably get off a mound,’’ said Sabathia, who will do the work at Yankee Stadium. “I’ll be at the Stadium every day the next couple of months.’’

Jeter donated a glove to the Hall of Fame on Sunday when he participated in his 153rd game against the Red Sox, including regular season and postseason. That moved him ahead of Lou Gehrig and Mickey Mantle for the most games played in Boston as a Yankee.

With Jeter done, the Core Four era is over.

“It’s the end of an era for those four guys,’’ Girardi said of Andy Pettitte, Jorge Posada, Rivera and Jeter. “I don’t know if you will ever see it again in all of sports. Four guys staying together for so long and having so much success. It’s an end of an era.’’

Things just tend to break right for Jeter.

With his final hit, the shortstop raised his career batting average from .309479 to .309513. He’ll now go in the record books with a .310 lifetime batting average.

It’s not often a lumbering catcher is used as a pinch runner, but McCann ran for Jeter in the third inning when Jeter’s career ended. McCann ran for fellow catcher David Ross two years ago.

“Joe told me two innings before,’’ said McCann, who received a hug from Jeter on the way off the field. “I just said, ‘Congrats on everything.’ ”